As you probably know, the Early Childhood MTEL practice test has been revised.  The new exam, now the “Field 72,” will be available starting February 6, 2023.  The Field 02, the old version, will be retired on February 5.  DESE recently released practice multiple-choice questions and an open response for the new version of the exam. 

I have prepared almost 1000 people for this exam (the 02) since the early- or mid-2000s, so I know it well.  The content on the 02 exam was middle- to high school-level academics (science, history, ELA, and math), child development, and special education.  It is pretty hard relative to the actual content taught by kindergarten, first, and second grade teachers.  The open response questions required a knowledge of elementary math and social studies or science concepts along with an understanding of some principles of developmental psychology. 

In our almost 25 years in business, we have experienced several MTEL changes. Whenever an MTEL is updated, it takes a little time to have our best program available.  However, based on what we can already see, we will have an updated program ready for the spring. One advantage we have over other MTEL-prep companies, besides our experience and expertise, is that our focus is always on strategies and building confidence.

The word on the street (from folks I know on a committee developing the new exam) is that the goal was to make the exam easier to pass.  The current (02) exam is difficult because of the huge breadth of information on it—you have to know (much more than) a little about everything from science to history to math to the special education process.  Another issue is the nature of the questions.  Attractors (trap answer choices) abound on this exam.  ETI’s test-taking system saved the careers of hundreds of prospective educators.  Anyone who is a “poor test taker” or suffers from a lack of confidence or test-taking anxiety is at a major disadvantage.  Which is why our program (and, actually, all of our programs) for the current exam focuses on increasing content knowledge but emphasized our logic-based test-taking system in our students—we teach our students how to “avoid the attractor” and how to score higher than you actually should based on your content knowledge. 

Looking at the new test objectives of the new Early Childhood MTEL https://www.mtel.nesinc.com/Content/StudyGuide/MA_SG_obj_72.htm ,
I think that the new exam will be easier for those who do not have a large general fund of knowledge in history and science, but the new version will post problems for another group of students—those who have difficulty with longer, wordy questions or who struggle with processing large amounts of information. The new questions https://www.mtel.nesinc.com/Content/StudyGuide/MA_SG_SRI_72.htm
that were recently released are informationally dense and wordy. We will have to wait until a full practice exam is released to learn more.

The new open response questions https://www.mtel.nesinc.com/Content/StudyGuide/MA_SG_CRI_72.asp share similarities with the current exam but with a new wrinkle or two. Our recommended strategy will not be very different than what we currently teach. Some of the exact wording and concepts can still be applied. Our students will learn a structure that will allow then to use much of the same verbiage on any possible variation they see.

If you would like to know more about this MTEL or how joinETI.com can guarantee success, check out our website joinETI.com or contact me directly, chuck@joinETI.com.